End device communication

ABSTRACT

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to enabling direct wireless device-to-device communication between sleepy end devices (SEDs) of a mesh (e.g., Thread®) network. A router may forward packets between end devices of the mesh network. However, if the router is not available, SEDs may not be able to communicate with each other using a mesh protocol. Embodiments presented herein enable end devices of the mesh network to communicate directly, without a router. Some embodiments are directed to changing a role of an end device to temporarily act as a router for a particular target end device. The role change may be based on a trigger event and may be temporary until a target action is performed by the target end device. In some embodiments, the end devices continue to operate as SEDs and use coordinated sampled listening techniques to communicate via the mesh protocol.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication, andmore specifically, to wireless device-to-device communication usingvarious communication protocols.

A mesh network (e.g., a Thread® network) may include router devices toforward packets between end devices of the network. That is, the enddevices communicate with a corresponding router of the network, but maynot forward packets for other network devices. In this way, the routermay act as a parent device for the end devices. However, if a router isnot available (e.g., out of range), then the end devices of the meshnetwork may not be able to communicate with one another.

SUMMARY

A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. Itshould be understood that these aspects are presented merely to providethe reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and thatthese aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure.Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may notbe set forth below.

When a parent device (e.g., a router) of a mesh network, such as aThread® network, is not available, end devices of the mesh network maynot be able to communicate with one another. For example, the parentdevice may forward packets (e.g., data) between one or more end devicesof the mesh network. The parent device may become unavailable, forexample, if a power failure of the parent device occurs, the parentdevice is not within communication range of the end devices, or someother communication error occurs. In that case, the end devices may notbe able to communicate with one another.

The end devices of the network may be sleepy end devices (SEDs) that arenormally disabled and wake on occasion to poll for messages from theparent device (e.g., a router). Embodiments presented herein providetechniques which enable the end devices to communicate directly betweenone another (e.g., without an intervening communication device forming aconnection between the end devices, such as the parent device). In someembodiments, a first end device may be promoted to act as a router forthe mesh network with respect to at least one other end device (e.g., asecond end device). In some embodiments, a first end device may continueto operate as a sleepy end device and use coordinated sampled listening(CSL) techniques to communicate (e.g., via the Thread® protocol).

In one embodiment, an electronic device is presented. The electronicdevice includes a receiver configured to receive data from a peripheraldevice via a first communication protocol through a routing device. Theelectronic device also includes a transmitter configured to transmitdata to the peripheral device via the first communication protocolthrough the routing device. The electronic device also includes one ormore processors configured to receive a first set of time periods forreceiving data using the receiver or transmitting data using thetransmitter via a second communication protocol. The one or moreprocessors are also configured to determine a second set of time periodsfor receiving data using the receiver or transmitting data using thetransmitter via the first communication protocol based on the first setof time periods. The one or more processors are also configured to causethe receiver to receive data or cause the transmitter to transmit datadirectly to the peripheral device without the routing device via thefirst communication protocol during the second set of time periods.

In another embodiment, a method is presented which includes detecting,using a transceiver of an electronic device, a trigger event associatedwith a peripheral device. The method also includes determining, usingthe transceiver, that a router using a communication protocol isunavailable to enable communication between the electronic device andthe peripheral device. The method also includes changing, usingprocessing circuitry of the electronic device, a role of the electronicdevice according to the communication protocol to communicate directlywith the peripheral device. The method also includes establishing, usingthe transceiver, a direct link with the peripheral device according tothe communication protocol. The method also includes transmitting, usingthe transceiver, an instruction to the peripheral device to perform atarget action.

In yet another embodiment, an electronic device is presented including afirst transceiver for wireless communication according to a firstcommunication protocol. The first transceiver is configured tocommunicate with a peripheral device via the first communicationprotocol and through a parent device. The electronic device alsoincludes a second transceiver for wireless communication according to asecond communication protocol. The electronic device also includes oneor more processors configured to determine a proximity of the electronicdevice to the peripheral device using the second transceiver accordingto the second communication protocol. The one or more processor are alsoconfigured to enable the first transceiver to communicate directly withthe peripheral device according to the first communication protocolbased on the proximity of the electronic device to the peripheraldevice.

Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation tovarious aspects of the present disclosure. Further features may also beincorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements andadditional features may exist individually or in any combination. Forinstance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more ofthe illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of theabove-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in anycombination. The brief summary presented above is intended only tofamiliarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodimentsof the present disclosure without limitation to the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon readingthe following detailed description and upon reference to the drawingsdescribed below in which like numerals refer to like parts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device, according toembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a functional diagram of the electronic device of FIG. 1 ,according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a network including various end devices androuters (each of which may include the electronic device of FIG. 1 ),according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication system including anelectronic device (e.g., as shown in FIG. 1 ) and a peripheral deviceusing the network of FIG. 3 , according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a device-to-device communication systemincluding an electronic device (e.g., as shown in FIG. 1 ) and aperipheral device, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting operations of the electronic device andthe peripheral device of FIGS. 4 and 5 when a role of the electronicdevice changes from an end device to a router, according to embodimentsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram for scheduling communication between theelectronic device and the peripheral device of FIGS. 4 and 5 when aparent device is unavailable and without changing a role of theelectronic device, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart depicting operations of the electronic device andthe peripheral device of FIGS. 4 and 5 using coordinated sampledlistening when a parent device is unavailable and without changing arole of the electronic device, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effortto provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all featuresof an actual implementation are described in the specification. Itshould be appreciated that in the development of any such actualimplementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerousimplementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve thedevelopers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related andbusiness-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation toanother. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a developmenteffort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be aroutine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those ofordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

When introducing elements of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean thatthere are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,”“including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean thatthere may be additional elements other than the listed elements.Additionally, it should be understood that references to “oneembodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are notintended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additionalembodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Furthermore, theparticular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined inany suitable manner in one or more embodiments. Use of the term“approximately,” “near,” “about,” “close to,” and/or “substantially”should be understood to mean including close to a target (e.g., design,value, amount), such as within a margin of any suitable orcontemplatable error (e.g., within 0.1% of a target, within 1% of atarget, within 5% of a target, within 10% of a target, within 25% of atarget, and so on).

This disclosure is directed to enabling communication between enddevices of a network. In some cases, communication may be enabled via atemporary connection (e.g., on an as-needed basis). Specifically, thenetwork may include a mesh network (e.g., a Thread® network) and thecommunication between devices may be in accordance with the mesh networkprotocol. For example, the Thread® protocol typically utilizes a routerto forward packets between end devices of the Thread® network. That is,the Thread® router may act as a parent device for the end devices. Assuch, an end device may utilize a radio to transmit a message to anotherend device via the router. While the Thread® network is used as anexample of a mesh network, it should be understood that the conceptsdisclosed herein may also be applied to other networks, includingZigbee®, Z-Wave®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ISA100.11a, WirelessHART®,MiWi™, IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN),Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP), Wi-Fi mesh networks, and the like.

As an example, the router may forward information between the Thread®network and a non-Thread® network, such as a Wi-Fi network. In thatcase, the router may be referred to as a “border router” and convert aWi-Fi message to the Thread® protocol and transmit the converted Thread®message to the target end device using a Thread® radio. The Thread®radio may be defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for low-rate wirelesspersonal area networks (LR-WPANs).

In some cases, the end devices may be sleepy end devices (SEDs) whichare normally disabled (e.g., asleep) and wake on occasion to poll formessages from a parent device (e.g., the router). In some cases, an SEDmay awaken when a “wakeup message” is received. The wakeup message mayinstruct the SED to wake-up to poll for messages at a time differentthan a schedule polling period. For example, the router may transmit thewakeup message to the SED.

However, if the router of the Thread® network is unavailable, the enddevices (including the SEDs) may not be able to communicate with eachother using the Thread® protocol. For example, the router may beunavailable due to proximity (e.g., a distance) from the end devices, apower failure of the router, or another issue with the router orcommunication from the router. Moreover, the end devices may be unableto use other communication protocols (e.g., BLUETOOTH®, ultra-wideband(UWB), etc.) to communicate with one another. For example, while someend devices may communicate using BT or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),others may not have such capabilities. Thus, a direct communicationbetween end devices (e.g., without an intervening communication device,such as via a peer-to-peer or device-to-device connection) may not bepossible if the router is not available.

Embodiments presented herein provide techniques which enable the enddevices to communicate directly with each other (such as via apeer-to-peer or device-to-device connection), without the router. Insome embodiments, an end device may be prompted to temporarily act as arouter (e.g., a Thread® router) for another end device. In someembodiments, the end devices may continue to operate as SEDs and usecoordinated sampled listening (CSL) techniques to communicate (e.g., viathe Thread® protocol). Advantageously, embodiments presented hereinenable end devices of a mesh network (e.g., a Thread® network) tocommunicate even when a parent device (e.g., a router) is not availableto forward communications therebetween.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device 10, according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The electronic device 10 mayinclude, among other things, one or more processors 12 (collectivelyreferred to herein as a single processor for convenience, which may beimplemented in any suitable form of processing circuitry), memory 14,nonvolatile storage 16, a display 18, input structures 22, aninput/output (I/O) interface 24, a network interface (e.g., a wirelessinterface) 26, and a power source 29. The various functional blocksshown in FIG. 1 may include hardware elements (including circuitry),software elements (including machine-executable instructions) or acombination of both hardware and software elements (which may bereferred to as logic). The processor 12, memory 14, the nonvolatilestorage 16, the display 18, the input structures 22, the input/output(I/O) interface 24, the network and/or wireless interface 26, and/or thepower source 29 may each be communicatively coupled directly orindirectly (e.g., through or via another component, a communication bus,a wireless connection, a network) to one another to transmit and/orreceive data between one another. It should be noted that FIG. 1 ismerely one example of a particular implementation and is intended toillustrate the types of components that may be present in electronicdevice 10.

By way of example, the electronic device 10 may include any suitablecomputing device, including a desktop or notebook computer (e.g., in theform of a MacBook®, MacBook® Pro, MacBook Air®, iMac®, Mac® mini, or MacPro® available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a portableelectronic or handheld electronic device such as a wireless electronicdevice or smartphone (e.g., in the form of a model of an iPhone®available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a tablet (e.g., in theform of a model of an iPad® available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino,Calif.), a wearable electronic device (e.g., in the form of an AppleWatch® by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), and other similar devices.In some cases, the electronic device 10 may be representative of arouter, an end device, and/or a sleepy end device (SED) of a Thread®network, as discussed herein.

It should be noted that the processor 12 and other related items in FIG.1 may be generally referred to herein as “data processing circuitry.”Such data processing circuitry may be embodied wholly or in part assoftware, hardware, or both. Furthermore, the processor 12 and otherrelated items in FIG. 1 may be a single contained processing module ormay be incorporated wholly or partially within any of the other elementswithin the electronic device 10. The processor 12 may be implementedwith any combination of general-purpose microprocessors,microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmablegate array (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), controllers,state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware components, dedicatedhardware finite state machines, or any other suitable entities that mayperform calculations or other manipulations of information. Theprocessors 12 may perform the various functions described herein.

In the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 , the processor 12 may be operablycoupled with a memory 14 and a nonvolatile storage 16 to perform variousalgorithms. Such programs or instructions executed by the processor 12may be stored in any suitable article of manufacture that includes oneor more tangible, computer-readable media. The tangible,computer-readable media may include the memory 14 and/or the nonvolatilestorage 16, individually or collectively, to store the instructions orroutines. The memory 14 and the nonvolatile storage 16 may include anysuitable articles of manufacture for storing data and executableinstructions, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, rewritableflash memory, hard drives, and optical discs. In addition, programs(e.g., an operating system) encoded on such a computer program productmay also include instructions that may be executed by the processor 12to enable the electronic device 10 to provide various functionalities.

In certain embodiments, the display 18 may facilitate users to viewimages generated on the electronic device 10. In some embodiments, thedisplay 18 may include a touch screen, which may facilitate userinteraction with a user interface of the electronic device 10.Furthermore, it should be appreciated that, in some embodiments, thedisplay 18 may include one or more liquid crystal displays (LCDs),light-emitting diode (LED) displays, organic light-emitting diode (OLED)displays, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays,or some combination of these and/or other display technologies.

The input structures 22 of the electronic device 10 may enable a user tointeract with the electronic device 10 (e.g., pressing a button toincrease or decrease a volume level). The I/O interface 24 may enableelectronic device 10 to interface with various other electronic devices,as may the network and/or wireless interface 26. In some embodiments,the I/O interface 24 may include an I/O port for a hardwired connectionfor charging and/or content manipulation using a standard connector andprotocol, such as the Lightning connector provided by Apple Inc. ofCupertino, Calif., a universal serial bus (USB), or other similarconnector and protocol. The network and/or wireless interface 26 mayinclude, for example, one or more interfaces for a personal area network(PAN), such as a BLUETOOTH® network, for a local area network (LAN) orwireless local area network (WLAN), such as a network employing one ofthe IEEE 802.11x family of protocols (e.g., WI-FI®), for a low-ratewireless personal are network (LR-WPAN), such as employing the IEEE802.15.4 protocol (e.g., a mesh network, such as a Thread® network),and/or for a wide area network (WAN), such as any standards related tothe Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including, for example,a 3^(rd) generation (3G) cellular network, universal mobiletelecommunication system (UMTS), 4^(th) generation (4G) cellularnetwork, long term evolution (LTE®) cellular network, long termevolution license assisted access (LTE-LAA) cellular network, 5^(th)generation (5G) cellular network, and/or New Radio (NR) cellularnetwork, a satellite network, and so on. In particular, the networkinterface 26 may include, for example, one or more interfaces for usinga Release-15 cellular communication standard of the 5G specificationsthat include the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency range (e.g.,24.25-300 gigahertz (GHz)). The network interface 26 of the electronicdevice 10 may allow communication over the aforementioned networks(e.g., 5G, Wi-Fi, LTE-LAA, a mesh network such as a Thread® network, andso forth).

The network and/or wireless interface 26 may also include one or moreinterfaces for, for example, broadband fixed wireless access networks(e.g., WIMAX®), mobile broadband Wireless networks (mobile WIMAX®),asynchronous digital subscriber lines (e.g., ADSL, VDSL), digital videobroadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T®) network and its extension DVB Handheld(DVB-H®) network, ultra-wideband (UWB) network, alternating current (AC)power lines, and so forth.

As illustrated, the network and/or wireless interface 26 may include atransceiver 30. In some embodiments, all or portions of the transceiver30 may be disposed within the processor 12. The transceiver 30 maysupport transmission and receipt of various wireless signals via one ormore antennas. Thus, the transceiver may include a transmitter and areceiver. In some embodiments, the transceiver 30 may include one ormore communication controllers for various communication protocols. Thecommunication controllers may be coupled to the transmitter and thereceiver and may be used to enable communication between the electronicdevice 10 during normal operation and/or during a low power mode.

The power source 29 of the electronic device 10 may include any suitablesource of power, such as a rechargeable lithium polymer (Li-poly)battery and/or an alternating current (AC) power converter. In certainembodiments, the electronic device 10 may take the form of a computer, aportable electronic device, a wearable electronic device, or other typeof electronic device. In some embodiments, the power source 29 mayinclude or be representative of a power management unit (PMU) which maycontrol distribution of power throughout the electronic device 10. Forexample, the power management unit may control power supplied to varioussubsystems and/or components of the electronic device 10, shut down(e.g., turn off) the subsystems and/or components not currently beingused, control sleep and/or power functions of the various subsystemsand/or components. In some cases, the power management unit may conservebattery power of the electronic device 10 by turning off the electronicdevice until a signal is received or until a predefined time periodelapses to listen for a wake-up signal.

FIG. 2 is a functional diagram of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 ,according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, theprocessor 12, the memory 14, the transceiver 30, a transmitter 52, areceiver 54, and/or antennas 55 (illustrated as 55A-55N, collectivelyreferred to as an antenna 55) may be communicatively coupled directly orindirectly (e.g., through or via another component, a communication bus,a network) to one another to transmit and/or receive data between oneanother.

The electronic device 10 may include the transmitter 52 and/or thereceiver 54 that respectively enable transmission and reception of databetween the electronic device 10 and an external device via, forexample, a network (e.g., including base stations) or a directconnection. As illustrated, the transmitter 52 and the receiver 54 maybe combined into the transceiver 30. In some cases, the transceiver 30may be referred to herein as a “radio” for a specific communicationprotocol. The electronic device 10 may also have one or more antennas55A-55N electrically coupled to the transceiver 30. The antennas 55A-55Nmay be configured in an omnidirectional or directional configuration, ina single-beam, dual-beam, or multi-beam arrangement, and so on. Eachantenna 55 may be associated with a one or more beams and variousconfigurations. In some embodiments, multiple antennas of the antennas55A-55N of an antenna group or module may be communicatively coupled arespective transceiver 30 and each emit radio frequency signals that mayconstructively and/or destructively combine to form a beam.

The electronic device 10 may include multiple transmitters, multiplereceivers, multiple transceivers, and/or multiple antennas as suitablefor various communication standards. For example, for each of a varietyof communication protocols (e.g., Thread®, BT, BLE, UWB, near-fieldcommunication (NFC)), the electronic device 10 may include a respectivetransceiver 30 (e.g., having a respective transmitter 52 and arespective receiver 54). In some embodiments, the transmitter 52 and thereceiver 54 may transmit and receive information via other wired orwireline systems or means.

As illustrated, the various components of the electronic device 10 maybe coupled together by a bus system 56. The bus system 56 may include adata bus, for example, as well as a power bus, a control signal bus, anda status signal bus, in addition to the data bus. The components of theelectronic device 10 may be coupled together or accept or provide inputsto each other using some other mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a network 60 including various end devices62 and routers 64 (each of which may include the electronic device 10 ofFIG. 1 ), according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Thenetwork 60 may be representative of a mesh network, such as a Thread®network, as discussed herein. As discussed above, the routers 64(represented as pentagons) may forward packets (e.g., data) betweenand/or to the end devices 62 (represented as circles) of the network 60.A router 64 may transmit a packet via a radio or transceiver, such asthe transceiver 30 of FIGS. 1 and 2 , to a targeted end device 62 viaanother router 64. The routers 64 may also provide also provide securecommissioning services for other devices attempting to join the network60. A transceiver of each router 64 may be enabled at times (e.g., alltimes) to receive and transmit packets.

If a router 64 does not have any children (e.g., communicatively coupledend devices 62), the router 64 may be downgraded to operate as an enddevice 62. Conversely, if a new end device attempting to join thenetwork 60 is within range of a current end device 62 of the network 60(but not a router 64), and that end device 62 is eligible to become arouter 64, the end device 62 may be upgraded to operate as a router 64for the new end device. In that case, the new router 64 acts as a router64 with respect to the new end device and is coupled to one or moreother routers 64 of the network 60.

Each end device 62 of the network 60 may communicate primarily with asingle router 64. For example, in a typical Thread® network, the enddevices 62 may not forward packets for other network devices (e.g., enddevices 62 and router 64). In some cases, the end devices 62 are sleepyend devices (SEDs) and may disable their respective transceivers (e.g.,in the form of the transceiver 30 of FIGS. 1 and 2 ) to reduce powerconsumption. In such cases, the SEDs 62 may wake on occasion to poll formessages from a corresponding router 64. An interval between polling foran SED 62 may be based on a schedule or other configuration of acorresponding transceiver, and may be controlled by a processor and/orPMU of the SED 62, such as the processor 12 and/or the power source 29of FIG. 1 .

As shown, if a router 64 is removed from (e.g., unavailable to) thenetwork 60, the end devices 62 coupled to that router 64 may not be ableto communicate directly with other end devices 62 coupled to that router64 or other end devices 62 of the network 60. Advantageously,embodiments presented herein provide techniques which enable end devices62 of the network 60 to communicate directly, even when a router 64 isunavailable.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 70 including anelectronic device 72 and a peripheral device 74 using the network 60 ofFIG. 3 , according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Theelectronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 may include the enddevices 62 of FIG. 3 , such as sleepy end devices (SEDs). As shown, theelectronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 are communicativelycoupled via a router 64. For example, the electronic device 72 maycommunicate with the router 64 as indicated by the arrow 76 and theperipheral device 74 may communicate with the router as indicated by thearrow 78. The electronic device 72 may communicate with the router 64using a protocol other than a mesh network protocol (e.g., the Thread®communication protocol), such as Wi-Fi, while the peripheral device 74may communicate with the router 64 using the mesh network protocol(e.g., the Thread® protocol). For example, the router 64 may convert aWi-Fi message from the electronic device 72 to the Thread® protocol andtransmit the converted Thread® message to the peripheral device 74 usinga Thread® radio.

In some cases, a router of the Thread® network may forward informationbetween the Thread® network (e.g., the network 60 of FIG. 3 includingthe electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74) and a non-Thread®network 80, such as a Wi-Fi network. In that case, the router 64 may bereferred to as a “border router” and convert a Wi-Fi message from thenon-Thread® network 80 to the Thread® protocol and transmit theconverted Thread® message to the peripheral device 74. The router 64 mayalso receive a Wi-Fi message from the non-Thread® network 80 and forwardthat message to the electronic device 72. Communication between therouter 64 and the non-Thread® network 80 is represented by the arrow 82.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a device-to-device communication system90 including an electronic device 72 and a peripheral device 74,according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As discussed above,a router 64 may convert a received message to a communication protocolused by a target device. For example, the router 64 may convert aThread® message from the peripheral device 74 to a Wi-Fi message andforward the converted Wi-Fi message to the electronic device 72.

However, if the router 64 is not available, as shown in FIG. 5 , the enddevices may not be able to communicate directly using the Thread®protocol as indicated by the arrow 92. For example, as an end device,the electronic device 72 may not be able to transmit a packet to anotherend device, such as the peripheral device 74, when the router 64communicatively couples the electronic device 72 and the peripheraldevice 74. Further, the peripheral device 74 may not recognize orreceive a packet from the electronic device 72 because the packet is nottransmitted from a router. Advantageously, embodiments presented hereinenable the electronic device 72 and peripheral device 74 to communicatedirectly when a router, such as the router 64 of FIGS. 3 and 4 , is notavailable to forward packets therebetween. As an example, the techniquespresented herein may be useful when a user of the electronic device 72is attempting to cause the peripheral device 74 to perform an actionbased on the Thread® protocol, but the Thread® protocol is unavailable.For example, the electronic device 72 may include a mobile device of theuser and the peripheral device 74 may include an electronic door lock.If the peripheral device 74 is configured to communicate via the Thread®protocol, the user may not be able to operate the peripheral device 74(e.g., lock or unlock the electronic door lock) using a command (e.g.,instruction and/or message) via the electronic device 72 if a Thread®router is not available. Embodiments presented herein provide techniquesthat cause the peripheral device 74 to perform an action based on amessage from the electronic device 72 even though the Thread® router isnot available. Other example of actions that may be performed by theperipheral device 74 and controlled by the electronic device 72 includestarting (or stopping) a motor of a vehicle, turning on (or turning off)an air conditioner or heater (e.g., in a home or vehicle), turning on(or turning off) a faucet, turning on (or turning off) a light, turningon (or turning off) an appliance, and the like.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting operations 100 of the electronic device72 and the peripheral device 74 of FIGS. 4 and 5 when a role of theelectronic device 72 changes from an end device to a router, accordingto embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood thatwhile the operations 100 illustrate utilizing Thread®, any othersuitable mesh communication protocol may be used, including Zigbee®,Z-Wave®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ISA100.11a, WirelessHART®, MiWi™,IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN),Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP), and the like. Similarly, while theoperations 100 illustrate utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), anyother communication protocol may be used, such as BT, Wi-Fi, UWB, NFC,and so on. As shown, the electronic device 72 includes a BLE radio 102and a Thread® radio 104. Similarly, the peripheral device 74 includes aBLE radio 106 and a Thread® radio 108. The various radios 102, 104, 106,108 may be representative of transceivers and/or processors (e.g.,including modems), such as the transceiver 30 and the processor 12 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 , and may be used to communicate (transmit and receive)and facilitate communication via the corresponding communicationprotocol. It should be understood that the electronic device 72 and theperipheral device 74 may have more or fewer radios than shown. Forexample, the electronic device 72 and peripheral device 74 may eachinclude a radio for other communication protocols, such as Wi-Fi, UWB,NFC, and the like. The electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74may include end devices, such as sleepy end devices (SEDs) according tothe Thread® specification, and thus the Thread® radios 104, 108 maynormally be disabled (e.g., when not actively polling).

The operations 100 may occur when a router, such as the router 64 ofFIGS. 3 and 4 , is unavailable. In some cases, the operations 100 may beinitiated when a trigger event is detected. The trigger event may bebased on a proximity of the electronic device 72 to the peripheraldevice 74. For example, the trigger event may occur and/or be detectedwhen the electronic device 72 is within a predetermined distancethreshold of the peripheral device 74 that is operable for (e.g.,enables operation of), for example, BT, BLE, UWB, NFC, and the like. Forexample, the predetermined distance threshold may be 5 centimeters (cm)or more, 10 cm or more, 1 meter (m) or more, 5 m or more, 8 m or more,10 m or more, 50 m or more, 100 m or more, 200 m or more, and so on. Thetrigger event may be additionally or alternatively based on a targetaction to be performed by the peripheral device 74. The target actionmay be based on a type of device of the peripheral device 74. Forexample, if the peripheral device 74 is a door lock, the target actionmay be unlocking (or locking) the door lock. If the peripheral device 74is a vehicle, the target action may include starting (or stopping) theengine, locking (or unlocking one or more doors), turning on (or off) alight or siren, and the like. If the peripheral device 74 is anappliance (e.g., washer, dryer, refrigerator, and so on), the targetaction may include turning the appliance on (or off), adjusting an input(or output) of the appliance, and the like. If the peripheral device 74is an air conditioner or heater, the target action may include turningthe air conditioner or heater on (or off), adjusting the air conditioneror heater, and the like.

At operation 110, the BLE radio 102 on the electronic device 72 mayinstruct the Thread® radio 104 of the electronic device 72 to changeroles from an SED to a Thread® router. At operation 112, the Thread®radio 104 of the electronic device 72 may confirm the role change bysending a confirmation or success message to the BLE radio 102 of theelectronic device 72. The success message may indicate that theinstruction of operation 110 was received and the role of the electronicdevice 72 has changed.

At operation 114, the BLE radio 102 of the electronic device 72 mayinstruct the BLE radio 106 of the peripheral device 74 to initiate aparent search. That is, the BLE radio 102 of the peripheral device 74may be (e.g., always, periodically, or occasionally) active andlistening for a BLE signal. In response, at operation 116, the BLE radio106 of the peripheral device 74 may instruct the Thread® radio 108 ofthe peripheral device 74 to initiate a parent search. That is, theThread® radio 108 of the peripheral device 74 may conduct a parentsearch by broadcasting one or more messages via the Thread® protocol.

Operations 118-128 correspond to establishing a connection between theelectronic device 72 (e.g., the parent device or router) and theperipheral device 74 (e.g., the child device) according to the Thread®specification. The connection between the electronic device 72 and theperipheral device 74 may be established using a Mesh Link Establishment(MLE) procedure according to the Thread® protocol. For example, atoperation 118, the peripheral device 74 (e.g., via the Thread® radio108) may send a multicast request to discover neighboring routers. Atoperation 120, the electronic device 72 (e.g., via the Thread® radio104) may transmit a unicast response to the parent request of operation118 that provides information about the electronic device 72 (e.g., therouter).

At operation 122, the peripheral device 74 may transmit a unicast childID request to establish a parent-child link between the peripheraldevice 74 and the electronic device 72. At operation 124, the electronicdevice 72 may transmit a unicast child ID response to confirm that achild-parent link has been established between the electronic device 72and the peripheral device 74. At operation 126, the peripheral device 74may send a child update request and, at operation 128, the electronicdevice 72 may send a child update response. Once the MLE link isestablished via the operations 118-128, bidirectional communication mayproceed between the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74using the Thread® protocol at operation 130. It should be understoodthat operations 118-128 may be performed using coordinated sampledlistening (CSL), according to the Thread® specification.

Advantageously, embodiments presented herein enable the electronicdevice 72 (e.g., a sleepy end device) of a Thread® network to perform anoperation with a peripheral device 74 (e.g., a peer device that is alsoa sleepy end device) via the Thread® protocol. In some cases, theembodiments herein enable communication between sleepy end devices of aThread® network to perform a time-critical function (e.g., unlocking adoor) even though a conventional Thread® network may not be available.

It should be understood that the role change of the electronic device 72to act and/or operate as a router may be temporary. For example, theelectronic device 72 may act and/or operate as a Thread® router untilthe communication is completed or until a target action is completed bythe peripheral device 74. For example, after the peripheral device 74completes a target action (e.g., unlocking a door), the role change ofthe electronic device 72 may be reversed such that the electronic device72 once again functions and/or operates as a sleepy end device accordingto the Thread® specification. In other cases, the role change of theelectronic device 72 to operate as a Thread® router may be continuous(e.g., permanent), or may be reversed at any time.

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram 150 for scheduling communication between theelectronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 of FIGS. 4 and 5 whena parent device is unavailable and without changing a role of theelectronic device, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.In some embodiments, a role of the electronic device 72 may not bechanged. In that case, the electronic device 72 and the peripheraldevice 74 may communicate directly (e.g., via a non-Thread®communication protocol). However, because various communicationprotocols (e.g., BT, BLE, UWB, etc.) used by the electronic device 72and/or the peripheral device 74 may share resources, conflicts may occurbetween communication protocols which prevent or interfere withcommunication between the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device74. For example, a conflict may arise when communication occurs for twodifferent communication protocols at the same time, such as when thereis an overlap in frequency when using the two communication protocols.For example, device-to-device communication (e.g., via a Thread®network) may operate on a 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical(ISM) frequency band, which may interfere with BT communicationoperating on a 2.4 GHz frequency band. Other communication protocolsused by the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 may alsointerfere with the frequency of device-to-device communications.

To prevent or reduce such interference, a communication scheduler (e.g.,a shared resource scheduler 152 and/or coexistence (Co-Ex) manager 154)may obtain receive (RX) and/or transmit (TX) time slots that arebroadcast by the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74. TheRX time slots may indicate when a respective receiver may be active(e.g., turned on), and the TX time slots may indicate when a respectivetransmitter may be active. Using the RX time slots for the electronicdevice 72 and the peripheral device 74, the scheduler 152, 154 maycoordinate transmission and receipt of signals therebetween. In someembodiments, the scheduler 152, 154 may utilize coordinated sampledlistening (CSL) techniques, which include a version of time-divisionmultiple access (TDMA), to determine when the electronic device 72 orthe peripheral device 74 may send or receive data. That is, theelectronic device 72 and/or peripheral device 74 may operate in a CSLmode where a respective receiver is turned on while the respectivedevice 72, 74 is idle.

The timing diagram 150 illustrates Co-Ex (coexistence) and CSLscheduling for the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74,respectively. For example, a top half of the timing diagram 150illustrates communication time slots of the peripheral device 74 and abottom half of the timing diagram 150 illustrates communication timeslots for the electronic device 72. The scheduler 152, 154 may identifya first subset of time slots during which Thread® messages areguaranteed for transmission and/or reception and a second subset of timeslots during which Thread® communication is unavailable because thesecond subset of time slots are used for other communication protocols,such as BT, Wi-Fi, and the like. For example, time slots 170 and 172 maybe reserved for communications using to the Thread® protocol. Time slots158 may be reserved for communications using a protocol other than theThread® protocol (e.g., BT, BLE, UWB, Wi-Fi, etc.).

As shown in the timing diagram 150, CSL RX time slots 170 of theelectronic device 72 and/or the peripheral device 74 align with the TXtime slots 172 of the other device 72, 74. In this way, the scheduler152, 154 ensures that one device 72, 74 has a receiver turned on whilethe other device 72, 74 is transmitting. In some cases, the scheduler152, 154 may alternate the TX time slots 172 and the RX time slots 170for the electronic device 72 and/or the peripheral device 74. That is, afirst time slot for Thread® communication of the electronic device 72may be a TX slot 172 and a second time slot for Thread® communication ofthe electronic device 72 may be an RX slot 170.

In some embodiments, the scheduler 152 of the peripheral device 74and/or coexistence (e.g., Co-Ex) manager 154 of the electronic device 72may grant or approve time slots 156 to guarantee communication for thevarious communication protocols. For example, the Co-Ex manager 154 mayguarantee a certain number of Thread® communication time slots 170, 172are available for a given time period. The Co-Ex manager 154 may alsoensure that no Thread® communication time slot 170, 172 overlaps with atime slot for another communication protocol 158. In this way, the Co-Exmanager 154 may prevent a conflict between communication protocolsresulting from shared resources. The scheduler 152 and/or Co-Ex manager154 may execute on and be controlled by the electronic device 72 and/orthe peripheral device 74. In some cases, the scheduler 152 and/or theCo-Ex manager 154 may be embodied in the processor 12 executinginstructions stored in the memory 14, of FIG. 1 .

The scheduler 152 and/or the Co-Ex manager 154 may utilize controlmessages 160, 162, also referred to as information elements or IEs, forscheduling the various Thread® time slots 170, 172. For example, thecontrol messages may include a frequency 166, 168 of communication forthe various communication protocols (e.g., a time for which therespective communication should repeat) and a duration 164 of the timeslots 170, 172 (e.g., a duration for each instance of the respectivecommunication). For example, a first control message 160 (e.g., “CSLIE-T1”) may be associated with RX time slots 170 and may include a firstduration 164 for the RX time slots 170 and a first frequency 166 for theRX time slots 170. A second control message 162 (e.g., “CSL IE-T2”) maybe associated with the TX time slots 172 and may include a secondduration 164 of the TX time slots 172 and a second frequency 168 of theTX time slots 172. In some embodiments, the control messages 160, 162may also include a duration between respective time slots 170, 172,which may correspond to time slots for messages to be transmitted and/orreceived according to other communication protocols.

Bluetooth® (BT) or BLE communication may require a specific number oftime slots (for communication) in a given time period (e.g., 7.5milliseconds) and a duration (e.g., 3.75 milliseconds) for each timeslot, as defined by the BT specification. Thus, the scheduler 152 and/orthe Co-Ex manager 154 may determine a number and a duration 164 of timeslots reserved for Thread® communication during the given time period.For example, the scheduler 152 and/or the Co-Ex manager 154 may providetime slots for Thread® communication for the electronic device 72, whichtotal about 10 milliseconds (ms) for every 100 ms.

The scheduler 152 and/or the Co-Ex manager 154 may allocate a remainingtime of the BLE time period of 7.5 milliseconds to Thread®communication. For example, the scheduler 152 and/or the Co-Ex manager154 may allocate 3.75 milliseconds (e.g., 7.5 milliseconds minus 3.75milliseconds for BLE) for Thread® communication. In some cases, theallocated time for Thread® communication may be a single time slot. Inother cases, the allocated time for the Thread® communication may bedivided between more than one time slot.

The scheduler 152 and/or Co-Ex manager 154 of the electronic device 72may jointly allocate time slots (e.g., time slots 158, 170, 172) forcommunication between the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device74. Additionally or alternatively, a scheduler 152 and/or Co-Ex manager154 of the peripheral device 74 may allocate time slots (e.g., timeslots 158, 170, 172) for communication between the peripheral device 74and the electronic device 72. In some embodiments, if the time slots158, 170, 172 allocated by the electronic device 72 match or correlateto the time slots 158, 170, 172 allocated by the peripheral device 74,peer-to-peer communication may begin using those the matching time slots158, 170, 172. If the time slots do not match, the scheduler 152 and/orCo-Ex manager 154 of one device (e.g., the electronic device 72 or theperipheral device 74) may adjust the corresponding time slots to matchor correlate to the time slots (e.g., the time slots 158, 170, 172)allocated by the scheduler 152 and/or Co-Ex manager 154 of the otherdevice. Advantageously, the scheduler 152 and/or the Co-Ex manager 154enable the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 tocommunicate via the Thread® protocol while reducing or preventinginterference with other communication protocols.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart depicting operations 180 of the electronic device72 and the peripheral device 74 (e.g., sleepy end devices) of FIGS. 4and 5 using coordinated sampled listening (CSL) when a parent device isunavailable and without changing a role of the electronic device,according to embodiments of the present disclosure. It should beunderstood that while the operations 180 illustrate utilizing Thread®,any other suitable mesh communication protocol may be used, includingZigbee®, Z-Wave®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ISA100.11a, WirelessHART®,MiWi™, IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN),Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP), and the like. Similarly, while theoperations 180 illustrate utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), anyother communication protocol may be used, such as BT, Wi-Fi, UWB, NFC,and so on. As discussed above, CSL techniques may be used forcommunication between the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device74 even if, for example, a role of the electronic device 72 and/or theperipheral device 74 are not changed. That is, CSL techniques may beused to enable Thread® communication between the electronic device 72and the peripheral device 74 (e.g., sleepy end devices) even though aThread® router is not available.

In some embodiments, the operations 180 may be initiated when a triggerevent is detected. As discussed above, the trigger event may be based ona proximity of the electronic device 72 to the peripheral device 74. Forexample, the trigger event may be detected when the electronic device 72is within a predetermined distance threshold of the peripheral device 74that is operable for, for example, BT, BLE, UWB, NFC, and the like.Additionally or alternatively, the trigger event may be further based ona target action to be performed by the peripheral device 74. The targetaction may be based on a type of device of the peripheral device 74. Forexample, if the peripheral device 74 is a door lock, the target actionmay be unlocking (or locking) the door lock.

Similar to the flowchart of FIG. 6 discussed above, the electronicdevice 72 includes a BLE radio 102 and a Thread® radio 104, and theperipheral device 74 includes a BLE radio 106 and a Thread® radio 108.The various radios 102, 104, 106, 108 may be representative oftransceivers and/or processors (e.g., including modems), such as thetransceiver 30 and the processor 12 of FIGS. 1 and 2 and may be used tocommunicate (transmit and receive) and facilitate communication via thecorresponding communication protocol. It should be understood that theelectronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 may have more or fewerradios than shown. For example, the electronic device 72 and peripheraldevice 74 may include a radio for other communication protocols, such asWi-Fi, UWB, NFC, and the like. The electronic device 72 and theperipheral device 74 may be sleepy end devices (SEDs) according to theThread® specification, and thus the Thread® radios 104, 108 may normallybe disabled.

The operations 180 begin at operation 182, where the BLE radio 102 ofthe electronic device 72 may transmit wake-up frames to a Thread® radioof the electronic device 72. The wake-up frames may be sent via anysuitable communication protocol, including Wi-Fi, BT, BLE, UWB, NFC, andthe like. That is, because the electronic device 72 is a sleepy enddevice with respect to Thread® communication, and thus the Thread® radio104 of the electronic device 72 may be idle or inactive until apredetermined time, the wake-up frames may be sent via a protocol otherthan Thread®. In some embodiments, the wake-up frames may be transmittedto the Thread® radio 104 using a different communication protocol thatis available to and via radios that are included in both the electronicdevice 72 and the peripheral device 74 (e.g., Wi-Fi, UWB, NFC, etc.). Insome cases, the wake-up frames may include coordinated sampled listening(CSL) information (e.g., informational elements and/or control messages)for communicating with the peripheral device 74 via the Thread®protocol, as discussed below.

At operation 184, the Thread® radio of the electronic device 72 may senda success message to the BLE radio 102 of the electronic device 72. Thesuccess message may indicate that the wake-up instruction of operation182 was received. In some cases, the electronic device 72 may attach toa Thread® router as a child device or may remain idle to search for aparent device (e.g., a router).

At operation 186, the BLE radio 102 of the electronic device 72 may sendinstructions to the BLE radio 106 of the peripheral device 74. Theinstructions may include wake-up frames and/or instructions to begincoordinated sampled listening (CSL) via the Thread® radio 106 of theperipheral device 74. The instructions may be sent to the peripheraldevice 74 via the BT/BLE protocol because the peripheral device 74 is asleepy end device according to the Thread® protocol. Thus, the BLE radio106 of the peripheral device 74 may always be active, and thuscontinuously listening for BT and/or BLE signals.

A scheduler may obtain TX and/or RX time slots for the electronic device72 and the peripheral device 74 for CSL. That is, the scheduler maydetermine which time slots are reserved for synchronized CSL to reducean occurrence of interference of communications between the electronicdevice 72 and the peripheral device 74. The instructions may include CSLinformation (e.g., informational elements and/or control messages) forthe electronic device 72 to communicate with the peripheral device 74via the Thread® protocol. For example, the CSL information may include afrequency of communication for the various communication protocols and aduration of the time slots for each communication protocol. In somecases, the CSL information may include a different frequency channel forthe various communication protocols that may be used to avoidinterference with other communication protocols. At operation 190, theBLE radio 106 of the peripheral device 74 may transmit a signal to theThread® radio 108 of the peripheral device 74 to begin CSL listening.The signal at operation 190 may be a BLE signal and may include wake-upframes for the Thread® radio 108 of the peripheral device 74.

At operation 192, the Thread® radio 104 of the electronic device 72 maytransmit a multicast link request to the Thread® radio 108 of theperipheral device 74. At operation 194, in response to the multicastlink request, the Thread® radio 108 of the peripheral device 74 maytransmit a unicast acceptance to the Thread® radio 104 of the electronicdevice 72. At operation 196, the Thread® radio 104 of the electronicdevice 72 may transmit a unicast confirmation of the communication linkto the Thread® radio 108 of the peripheral device 74.

Once the communication link (e.g., a mesh link, MLE) is established atoperation 192-196, bidirectional communication may proceed between theThread® radio 104 of the electronic device 72 and the Thread® radio 108of the peripheral device 74 using the Thread® protocol, at operation198. It should be noted that establishment of the communication linkbetween the electronic device 72 and the peripheral device 74 atoperations 190-196 may be performed using synchronized coordinatedsampled listening (CSL), as determined by the scheduler, to prevent orsubstantially reduce an occurrence of interference with othercommunication protocols.

Embodiments presented herein provide techniques for sleepy end devicesto communicate directly via the Thread® communication protocol withoutthe need for a router or parent device. In this way, sleepy end devicesof a Thread® network may reduce a latency of performing a target actionby decreasing a number of devices to transmit a message and by enablingsleepy end device to communicate directly with one another even if anassociated Thread® network is not available. Further, the reduced numberof devices to transmit a message improve an efficiency of communicationbetween sleepy end devices and reduce an amount of resources needed totransmit the message.

The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way ofexample, and it should be understood that these embodiments may besusceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should befurther understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to theparticular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope ofthis disclosure.

The techniques presented and claimed herein are referenced and appliedto material objects and concrete examples of a practical nature thatdemonstrably improve the present technical field and, as such, are notabstract, intangible, or purely theoretical. Further, if any claimsappended to the end of this specification contain one or more elementsdesignated as “means for [perform]ing [a function] . . . ” or “step for[perform]ing [a function] . . . ,” it is intended that such elements areto be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, for any claimscontaining elements designated in any other manner, it is intended thatsuch elements are not to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f).

It is well understood that the use of personally identifiableinformation should follow privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular,personally identifiable information data should be managed and handledso as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use,and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

1. An electronic device comprising: a receiver configured to receivedata from a peripheral device via a first communication protocol througha routing device; a transmitter configured to transmit data to theperipheral device via the first communication protocol through therouting device; and one or more processors configured to: receive afirst set of time periods for receiving data using the receiver ortransmitting data using the transmitter via a second communicationprotocol; determine a second set of time periods for receiving datausing the receiver or transmitting data using the transmitter via thefirst communication protocol based on the first set of time periods; andcause the receiver to receive data or cause the transmitter to transmitdata directly to the peripheral device without the routing device viathe first communication protocol during the second set of time periods.2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first set of timeperiods does not overlap with the second set of time periods.
 3. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the second set of time periods isdetermined based on coordinated sampled listening.
 4. The electronicdevice of claim 1, wherein the electronic device and the peripheraldevice comprise sleepy end devices.
 5. The electronic device of claim 1,wherein the receiver is configured to receive data directly from theperipheral device via the second communication protocol, and thetransmitter is configured to transmit data directly to the peripheraldevice via the second communication protocol.
 6. A method comprising:detecting, using a transceiver of an electronic device, a trigger eventassociated with a peripheral device; determining, using the transceiver,that a router using a communication protocol is unavailable to enablecommunication between the electronic device and the peripheral device;changing, using processing circuitry of the electronic device, a role ofthe electronic device according to the communication protocol tocommunicate directly with the peripheral device; establishing, using thetransceiver, a direct link with the peripheral device according to thecommunication protocol; and transmitting, using the transceiver, aninstruction to the peripheral device to perform a target action.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein the electronic device and the peripheraldevice are sleepy end devices before changing the role of the electronicdevice.
 8. The method of claim 7, comprising changing, using theprocessing circuitry of the electronic device, the role of theelectronic device to a sleepy end device after the target action isperformed by the peripheral device.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinthe trigger event is based on the target action to be performed by theperipheral device.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the trigger eventis based on a target action to be performed by the peripheral device.11. The method of claim 10, wherein the trigger event is based on aproximity of the electronic device to a peripheral device.
 12. Anelectronic device comprising: a first transceiver for wirelesscommunication according to a first communication protocol, the firsttransceiver configured to communicate with a peripheral device via thefirst communication protocol and through a parent device; a secondtransceiver for wireless communication according to a secondcommunication protocol; one or more processors configured to: determinea proximity of the electronic device to the peripheral device using thesecond transceiver according to the second communication protocol; andenable the first transceiver to communicate directly with the peripheraldevice according to the first communication protocol based on theproximity of the electronic device to the peripheral device.
 13. Theelectronic device of claim 12, wherein the electronic device comprises asleepy end device according to the first communication protocol.
 14. Theelectronic device of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to enable the electronic device to communicate directly withthe peripheral device by changing a role of the electronic deviceaccording to the first communication protocol.
 15. The electronic deviceof claim 14, wherein the role of the electronic device is changed basedon a comparison of the proximity to a proximity threshold.
 16. Theelectronic device of claim 12, comprising a third transceiver forwireless communication according to a third communication protocol,wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the thirdtransceiver to transmit one or more wake-up signals to the firsttransceiver prior to enabling the first transceiver to communicatedirectly with the peripheral device according to the first communicationprotocol.
 17. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the one or moreprocessors are configured to enable the first transceiver to communicatedirectly with the peripheral device by establishing a connection betweenthe first transceiver and the peripheral device, wherein the firstcommunication protocol comprises a mesh link establishment protocol. 18.The electronic device of claim 12, comprising a third transceiver forwireless communication according to a third communication protocol, anda scheduler configured to: receive one or more control messagescomprising a frequency and duration for a first set of time periods tocommunicate via the first communication protocol; and determine a secondset of time periods for communicating using the third transceiver viathe third communication protocol based on the frequency and duration forthe first set of time periods.
 19. The electronic device of claim 18,wherein the one or more processors are configured to enable the firsttransceiver to communicate directly with the peripheral device accordingto the first communication protocol during the first set of timeperiods, and enable the third transceiver to communicate according tothe third communication protocol during the second set of time periods.20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the one or moreprocessors are configured to: receive a third set of time periods fromthe third transceiver; adjust the second set of time periods tocorrelate to the third set of time periods based on the second set oftime periods not correlating to the third set of time periods; andenable the third transceiver to communicate according to the thirdcommunication protocol during the second set of time periods based onthe second set of time periods correlating to the third set of timeperiods.